Page 94 of A Bride for the Devilish Duke
Except, it wasn't.
It failed to even remotely fill the yawning chasm within him. Once, the thought of vengeance had been the fire that kept him warm through long winter nights, the food that fed him. Now, it was as ephemeral as smoke. The idea of enjoying his revenge at the expense of even a day lost in company with Emma seemed hollow.
She sighed from beside him. “From the day we met, you were a closed book. I never expected to be able to understand your motivations in wishing to marry me. To understand you. I toldmyself that it did not matter, because I did not love you. All that mattered was my duty to my family.”
She sat beside him and her rose-lily perfume filled his senses. He put out a hand and she withdrew hers. It was worse than the pain from a flaming timber that had once fallen across his back. Or the musket ball from a nightwatchman that had seared a path along his ribs.
“I have a duty to my family too,” Damien whispered, “I cannot put it aside.”
“I do not ask you to. Just let me help you fulfill it!” Emma entreated, “Or keep your secrets and... let me go!”
Her last words were spoken through tears. She choked on them, burying her face in her hands.
Damien was at a crossroads.
He could take the path of separation and secrecy. Fulfill his revenge and live his life alone.
Or I can keep my wife. But to do that I must break my oath to Harry. Harry would think it a simple decision. He would let her go and complete his revenge. My father would do the same. Damn him! I will not be like him!
He raised his head and met her gaze in earnest. “I swore an oath that I would revenge myself and my brother on our father'smemory. By destroying it. I set out to burn his legacy to the ground. To erase his fortune, the business empire he built in life. And I have almost succeeded. Only his warehouses in Wapping survive. My last attempt to destroy them almost cost me my life. And now, I have broken my oath.”
Emma turned to look at him slowly, eyes wide. He watched her, finally open and vulnerable before her.
“The pages are open for you to read. There are no more secrets. I am naked before you. You may stab me through the heart now if you wish. I will not try to stop you.”
Emma said nothing.
Then, after a long, held breath, she took his face in her hands and kissed him.
It felt like their first kiss.
It was new and thrilling, lightning coursing from his mouth to his manhood, awakening his loins immediately.
Damien grasped Emma fiercely, hungrily, clutching her to him even as he tried to drink her in through his kisses. He heard her moan against his lips, felt her sigh in surrender. Her body melted into his and triumph surged in Damien. It was the most primitive of feelings, the urge of a barbarian achieving his greatest victory.
Damien could feel in Emma's body, pressed against his, that she was not bidding a passionate farewell. She clutched him as hard as he held her. In the darkness of closed eyes, his sense of place sped away like a swift darting from the eaves of a barn. His balance slowly shifted as his awareness of their precarious perch decreased.
Only just before they fell did Damien's eyes fly open.
Emma's never did.
They fell into the icy water together, still holding each other. It was barely deep enough to cover their legs but it was chilly and it flowed over their whole bodies as they flailed in its frigid current.
Damien recovered his equilibrium first, getting his feet under him and picking up his wife. He tossed his hair from his face, grinning at their predicament. Emma buried her face in his shoulder, laughing until her shoulders shook. He carried her back through the wood to the spot where they had left the trap. As he walked, Emma's laughter subsided.
“That is not the reaction I expected to such a revelation,” Damien said.
Emma's head rested on his shoulder—she was quiet now, eyes seeming to gaze into the middle distance but not taking in what was immediately before them.
“I do not know how to react. It seems appallingly dangerous. Was your father so hateful?”
“Utterly. His neglect almost killed us both and he would have us disinherited if he did not think we lived up to his example. He does not deserve the legacy of wealth and achievement that he has. That is why I took up the Dukedom. To ensure nothing of his legacy survives.”
Damien carefully negotiated the wild woodland until he had reached the path, protecting Emma from wayward branches or brambles as he went. It was a relief to finally speak the full truth aloud. He had not realized the full weight of that burden until now.
“But what will become of you when the last of it is destroyed? Those properties are now yours,” Emma asked.
And here is the moment. The crossroads, sometime before I had expected to reach it. Will she take the path I hope? The same path as I am walking?
